MTC teams up with leading power tool manufacturer

MTC partnership to develop professional power tools of the future

One of the world’s leading professional power tool manufacturers has joined forces with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in a move aimed at developing
the next generation of power tools for industry, construction and the growing outdoor power tool market.

The MTC has welcomed Makita to its list of members. Makita, with its UK base in Telford, is celebrating 100 years of supporting industry with its tools
and equipment. Together the two organisations will work to develop professional power tools with capabilities to match the emerging manufacturing technologies
being developed at the Coventry-based MTC.

The link-up also means that MTC engineers will have the opportunity to work with some of the world’s most advanced production tools.

Makita was founded in 1915 in Nagoya City, Japan as an electric motor specialist. It moved into the professional power tool sector and became a market
leader. The UK manufacturing facility in Telford was opened in 1992 and now produces 63,000 power tools every week, 80 per cent of which are for export.

Mark Earles, contracts manager for Makita UK, said:

“This is a two-way street. We can provide our innovative production tools used by multi-national brands
in the automotive, aerospace and technical manufacturing industries where precise torque requirements are mandatory and automatic data recording is
essential. This gives the MTC’s engineers first-hand experience with Makita’s advanced production tools. At the same time Makita gets exposure to the
latest and experimental manufacturing processes. In this way we can design tools to meet future needs and the engineers grow to understand the depth
of capability in Makita to solve varied challenges.”

MTC chief executive Dr Clive Hickman said he was pleased to welcome a company with the reputation and acknowledged market leadership of Makita to the MTC
family.

“Makita joins partners from many sectors of industry determined to advance the high-tech skills of the future generations of manufacturing engineers for
the benefit of British industry. We look forward to working with Makita’s engineers and experts here at the MTC,” he said.

The MTC opened in 2010 and is a partnership between some of the UK’s major global manufacturers and three forward-thinking universities: Birmingham, Nottingham
and Loughborough as well as TWI Ltd.

The MTC aims to provide a competitive environment to bridge the gap between university-based research and the development of innovative manufacturing solutions,
in line with the Government’s manufacturing strategy. The MTC is part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK.